Re: Poking Around the Castle (Adonis)

[Guest]

A replicated compliment was definitely not what Adonis was expecting. He was expecting a simple awkward silence, which would wear off after a little while. His eyes shot open as quick as his body moved into a sitting position, and he stared down and the flustered face of his friend. Adonis could guarantee that they looked identical in the way of expressions right now, both with embarrassed looks in their eyes and bizarre paints showing under their skin. He was also trying to reply normally but, knowing he was failing, his blush simply deepened as he said, "Thank you?"

[Guest]

Leo opened one eye, just as unsure as his friend, "You're welcome?"

He was relieved to find that Adonis was just as red as him, and Leo couldn't figure out why that was comforting-- it just was. The following seconds asked the question: 'What next?' to which Leo didn't know the answer exactly, but he decided it best to wait on the Ravenclaw's actions.

[Guest]

"So..." Adonis began uncertainly. "What kind of games to wizards play?" He had no idea, having grown up with Muggles. Perhaps he would come across something fun. If not, he could always try to find something from the nonmagical perspective that the Hufflepuff beside him could enjoy.

[Guest]

"No idea," Leo answered wistfully, "I barely know what candy they're supposed to eat and I am one." Hogwarts, while exciting, had proven to be somewhat overwhelming for Leo. For 11 years, there was an entire world he didn't even know existed right beneath his nose, and he was 'destined' to be a part of it. He was supposed to feel like he belong here, but Leo felt like an outsider. He had eleven years of catching up to do.

[Guest]

Adonis tilted his head in utter confusion. "You're a Muggle?" he asked; the words rang with a sort of accusation. Hurriedly, he added, "Not that that's a bad thing, I mean." He realized that what he'd said sounded quite awful, but he didn't meant for it to come out that way. Hopefully Leo wouldn't take it offensively.

[Guest]

Leo shrugged, he hadn't been fazed by Adonis's question in the slightest. "Kinda, I guess. I mean, everyone in my family is a muggle...except me."

[Guest]

"You're Muggleborn or adopted, then," Adonis confirmed. He knew what it was like, growing up with people oblivious to the wizarding world. It was like a whole new world was just unveiled in a closet or across a bridge, or through a wall in a train station. It was revolutionary, really, and Adonis was more than happy to be able to relate to someone with the same experience. There was no hesitation in his voice as he relayed this joy to his friend, beaming the whole time.

[Guest]

"...muggleborn." Leo confirmed, glad to have a word for what he was. Making sense of one thing made making sense of all the others seem a lot easier, and Leo couldn't help but notice the eagerness in his friend's voice. The possibility was too difficult to ignore, and knowing someone who understood made things seem even easier. "You were raised by muggles too!?"

[Guest]

"Yes! It's wonderful to have someone that knows what it's like. It seems like everyone I've met so far were raised by at least one wizard parent. It's horribly difficult to relate like that, you know?"

Adonis was nearly bursting at the seams with the thrill of finally being able to relate to someone properly, not to mention Leo was his first real friend. His smile was brighter than the midday sun, and he was almost worried that it would never go away.

[Guest]

The Hufflepuff nodded, maintaining his place on the floor. He didn't much like getting confused looks in return for expressing his amazement. He'd already tried to contain it, but was mostly unsuccessful. Leo wasn't the type to feel out of place or insecure, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being laughed at. It seemed Adonis would be the solution to that, as the other first year would surely share some of his wonder. Realizing this, he sat up, and with all the honesty he could muster, looked at Adonis and said:

"I feel like a tourist. You know, like one of those silly Americans who've never had a real biscuit before?" And then a bit sheepishly he added: "...mum makes fun of them all the time..."

[Guest]

Adonis's head tipped to one side, expressing curiosity in his own way. "I have never had a conversation about Americans before, honestly. Are they really that odd?"

Once he'd gotten that question out of the way, he began to ponder the feeling of a tourist. He wasn't sure that he felt like one, but he certainly did feel out of place in Hogwarts. Although somehow he belonged, so perhaps that was what a tourist felt like. They think they stand out in a crowd, but they manage to fit right in nevertheless. Yes, he thought, perhaps that was what Leo was talking about.

"I think I feel the same way," he agreed. "It feels like we don't fit, but really we do, so it's not something we should worry about too much, you know?" He stopped to think for a moment, then added with a small laugh, "Unless you have some other reason to feel like a tourist."

[Guest]

"A bit," Leo responded, his lips twitching. He had a small collection of stories involving his mother and lost travelers, but he'd set those aside for some other day. Instead listened to Adonis carefully, being sure to pay his new friend lots of attention.

"Well it's not postcards, that's for sure. Do you know my aunt asked me to send her one?" Bashfully, he looks down and runs his eyes over the stone floor. "The worst part is, I actually looked...."

[Guest]

My God he's adorable was the first thought that popped into Adonis's mind. Although he hadn't said it aloud, and he knew that much as well, he couldn't stop the blush that shamelessly launched itself onto his face. He bit his lip nervously while trying to regather the shattered pieces of the self-control that he used to have.

He couldn't quite comprehend the feelings he was having. He knew that, in general, he was attracted to guys instead of girls, but he'd never actually experienced real feelings for someone before. This brought a whole new color to his cheeks, one whose intensity he'd never encountered before, and, really, he had nothing to say. He simply couldn't think of anything, as though his mind just ceased to work. All because Leo said something about bloody postcards, of all things.

[Guest]

Part of Leo began to wonder why it was that he and Adonis spent so much time blushing in each other's company. He did see his friend's red face, but he'd only glanced up once, and after that he pretended that he hadn't seen the intense blush. Leo decided to spare his friend, whatever the embarrassment. Besides-- it wasn't like he hadn't been pink cheeked himself. He hated that he sounded so daft, and he hated that he actually cared this time around. Impressing people was something Leo seldom did, but he couldn't keep from wanting to impress this boy he met by the lake.

"I have some, um.." Leo pat his chest a bit, feeling around for the lump in his robes. With an air of relief, he procured a chocolate bar from his robes. "It um, it doesn't move...I always loose the frogs...do you want a piece?"

[Guest]

Adonis chuckled before accepting a piece of the chocolate bar. It was a tad warm from being in Leo's pocket, so it melted a little in his hands as he tried to eat it. "I haven't actually had a chocolate frog. I never thought to get one," he mumbled, trying to get a conversation going after too many minutes in silence. "I wonder if it hurts them when you eat them..." He knew that was a terrible way to begin a topic, but it was on his mind, and his filter seldom worked. It didn't appear to have changed its ways now either.

[Guest]

Leo blinkered for a second, fiddling with his own piece of melty chocolate. That's what he thought when he was offered one for the first time. He had to wonder if it was common for those new to the wizarding world to question the feelings of enchanted chocolates.

"Who came up with it, anyway?" Leo asked, tossing his chocolate around in his mouth with his tongue. "Like, can't we have flying chocolate broomsticks or ringing telephones?"

[Guest]

Adonis stopped eating for a moment. He knew the answer to Leo's question, but there wasn't really a good way to go about answering it. In the end, he decided to approach it matter-of-factly, because there simply just wasn't a better way to put it. "Because chocolate broomsticks could be taken as a very sexual sort of joke and it wouldn't be very good for business, I would think. And wizards don't really use telephones..."

Hopefully Leo wouldn't think him perverted for coming up with that idea, but he was sure he wouldn't be the first or last if something like that came into existence.

[Guest]

Leo tried to look innocent, he honestly did-- but when you had an aunt like his, it was hard to be ignorant. She (unlike his mother) believed in educating children on such a topic at a young age, and (behind his mother's back) his aunt gave him quite a lesson. Other boys found that stuff funny. Leo's somewhat proper education on the topic prevented that. Not that his knowledge was incredibly detailed. Shrugging, he asked: "Then how do you explain chocolate covered bananas?"

[Guest]

"I can't," Adonis woefully admitted. That creation was beyond his comprehension. "I'm not regretting their existence though, and I don't think I ever will. They're quite delicious."

He licked the chocolate off of his fingers before drumming them on the cold stone. He had a question for Leo, but he was terrified to ask it. There was only one way to go about it, but there was never a more awkward thing created in the history of mankind. He held his breath for a few seconds before blurting out:

"Leo do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me?"

Adonis realized that it wasn't entirely comprehensible due to the honestly incredible speed with which he'd proposed the question, but he felt as though he was going to faint if he had to ask it again. It probably didn't help that he was already holding his breath due to the anxiety towards the very idea of repeating himself.

[Guest]

The proposition very nearly went right over his head. Leo had to think over the quick string of words twice before answering-- not to mention the second consuming contemplation on whether or not he should ask Adonis to repeat himself. However, he was smiling somewhat stupidly and blushing like a bride within that time.
Leo'd heard the words fine, he just couldn't quite internalize and process them.

"Yeah," He said, trying to take a figurative step back. "Okay"

If his actual words didn't get the point across, his excessive nodding definitely would. He didn't want to stop smiling, really, but the next topic required a serious face. So he tried to straighten out his mouth and keep his voice steady, because, how else would you go about delivering possible date-ruining news?

Leaning in a little and lowering his voice, he dropped the bomb; "My mum's going to want pictures. And both her and my aunt will probably want details I don't even go into when taking Potions notes...."

[Guest]

"Pictures," Adonis repeated absently. He was still trying to process Leo's answer, and he wasn't entirely ready to move on to that bit. There was nothing for it but to do so, however, otherwise he might end up looking a little too strange.

He set his first worry on the table before the conversation progressed. "Um, okay. Are they going to be okay that you're... well, going with a guy?"

His next question was accompanied by a twitch of the eyebrow and an oddly concerned look in his eye. "And how many details are we talking about?" Obviously he wasn't planning on doing anything specifically 'out there', but if they did, would his family really want to know about that? He tried to subtly convey this with a glance, but he didn't try too hard because he wasn't sure that he wanted Leo to be on the same track of thinking that he was at the moment.

[Guest]

"Why wouldn't they?" Leo asked blankly, "Though I suppose we won't be able to get pictures if we can't get a camera to work..."

Then, he shifted out of his lean with a shrug. "Probably just the usual stuff, I just hope it's not like the stuff Auntie asked cousin Jenny's prom date. I mean, my mum can be really protective but I doubt she's going to ask you if you've got--" He lowered his voice again, and spoke as though he was gossiping about the monster under his bed. "'The herpes'"

[Guest]

Adonis wasn't sure if he was supposed to laugh or wear a horrified expression, so he did a little of both. However, the laugh came out more as a snort, which hurt his throat a bit.

"Did your aunt really ask your cousin about that after prom?" he inquired, trying to redirect the conversation to some extent, at least to where it wasn't revolving around the two of them.

The Ravenclaw shifted his position so that he was propped up against the wall, where he let his head rest with closed eyes and a smirk on his mouth. His other senses automatically jumped to compensate for the lack of sight, so, already being bizarrely perceptive, Adonis could hear each breath and rustle of fabric when Leo moved, or even when he didn't move. It was interesting to understand his... friend? in this way. It was more intimate, for some reason, and Adonis easily decided that he liked it, probably more than he should. The smirk was gradually replaced by a small smile, and every muscle in his body relaxed, although he hadn't realized they were tensed before.

[Guest]

"No, she asked before prom. Like, when he came to pick Jenny up." Leo explained, vividly remembering his cousin's horrified squeal and her date's mortified expression. He laughed at them, but then both his aunt and Jenny snapped at him to stop because it wasn't funny. He had to laugh at the memory in secret.

Lips twitching a bit, Leo folded his legs over one another, mentally reciting: 'Criss-cross applesauce'. It was really only then that the reality of the situation set in. He found himself trying not to look at Adonis, but he really couldn't help it. Associating the word 'Date' with that face was an entirely new feeling that was way too fluttery. Leo wasn't sure that he liked it.

[Guest]

Adonis opened his eyes, bored of his self-induced blindness, and said, "That's horrible, for sure. I feel bad for them." The undertone of laughter would suggest otherwise, but he really did pity them for being put in that situation. It was the situation that he found amusing; he could play the whole thing out in his head, even though he didn't know what they looked like. He just assumed the cousin looked at least somewhat like Leo, and the boyfriend could look like whatever came into his mind.

Because he opened his eyes, however, he noticed something he never would have if he'd kept them closed. "Are you alright?" he inquired, noting his friend/date's expression. Leo seemed uncomfortable, but Adonis couldn't figure out what could be making him feel that way.

[Guest]

The Hufflepuff almost believed that his friend had him pinned, but then he realized that he didn't have to share his thoughts with him. Considering Leo often spoke without thinking, holding back was a strange feeling. It was easy to talk to Adonis, but at the same time the boy provoked Leo to slow down and think.

"Yeah," Leo lied, and then smiled a tiny bit. "I was just wondering if you were going to take another nap."

[Guest]

"Do you want me to take a nap?" Adonis asked, wondering to himself why such a thought would trigger the expression that was too quickly wiped away. As a joke he toppled over onto Leo's lap, then 'fell asleep', more or less so his friend couldn't bother him about it. However, the inevitable smirk couldn't even be torn from his face and was probably the most obvious of the signs that he wasn't really sleeping.

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